Enlarge image
Irina and Albina in the Vatican service: »So let us pause in prayerful silence and let us all pray in our hearts for peace in the world.«
Photo: IMAGO/VATICAN MEDIA / ipa-agency.net / IMAGO/Independent Photo Agency Int.
Easter is about, among other things, peace and reconciliation.
The controversy surrounding the Easter marches this year already shows how difficult that can be in times of a cruel war right on Europe's doorstep.
And Pope Francis also caused trouble with a gesture of peace, which he probably didn't see coming himself.
"We bring the great indignation of all Ukrainians around the world to the attention of the Holy See," Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev wrote last Tuesday.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the Holy See Andrei Yurasch made a similar complaint.
The trigger was a gesture of reconciliation planned for the Good Friday service.
The holiday precedes the actual Easter festival, which has Jesus' resurrection from the dead as its theme.
It is about Jesus' execution and the way there, from his condemnation to his death on the cross, the Way of the Cross.
Worship services in Christian communities around the world commemorate the various stations that Jesus completed on this path according to the text of the Bible, and prayers are said at each station of the Cross.
The idea: the suffering of the world, shouldered together
The idea of the Vatican, which holds its annual Stations of the Cross service with the Pope in the Colosseum in Rome, was that part of the way two women should carry the cross together: a Russian and a Ukrainian.
It was intended as a beautiful symbol - the suffering of the world, represented by the crucifix, shouldered together by representatives of two nations that are currently hostile to each other.
The background to this fits: It was also spread that these women were friends.
The Ukrainian woman is therefore Irina, a nurse, the Russian is called Albina, a medical student.
The two met and became friends at the polyclinic in Rome, wrote the newspaper Osservatore Romano.
But the gesture was received very differently by many Ukrainians, as an untimely provocation.
Tenor: How to reconcile now that the Russian troops, aggressors in this war, are ravaging Ukraine more and more cruelly?
In view of the killings in Bucha and the large Russian troop deployments over the Easter weekend, the gesture is unbearable for many Ukrainians.
Several Catholic media in the country announced that they would not broadcast the Stations of the Cross live, as they do every year.
Francis, however, stuck to the program item, in fact Irina and Albina carried the cross together part of the way.
New text version
However, the text of the devotional was changed at short notice, as reported by Bayerischer Rundfunk.
The station's meditation text now read: »In the face of death, silence speaks louder than words.
So let us pause in prayerful silence and let us all pray in our hearts for peace in the world.”
However, the plan was: “What mistakes have we made?
Why did you abandon our peoples?” Questions that should lead to the request: “Teach us to make peace, to be brothers and sisters, to rebuild what the bombs wanted to destroy.”
The text change is unlikely to satisfy the fewest critics.
Francis, however, was concerned not to ignore the war.
He himself prayed at the end of the ceremony: "Lord (...), disarm the armed arm that rises against the brother, so that where hatred flourishes, unity flourishes."
Thousands of believers took part in the procession and prayer at the ancient Roman building.
Most held torches in their hands.
In an interview with the Italian broadcaster Rai, the Pope also pointed out the numerous other conflicts around the world that are overshadowed by the Russian war of aggression.
"Syria, Yemen, then think of the displaced, homeless Rohingya," he said.
"There's war everywhere."
As far as Russia's war against Ukraine is concerned, the head of the Catholic Church has taken a critical stance towards Russia.
In a guest commentary in the »Corriere della Sera« this week he not only wrote that war is fundamentally »a madness, a monster, a cancer«.
He also said that undoubtedly "Ukraine was attacked and there was an invasion."
Unlike before, Francis expressed understanding for arms deals in the Rai interview.
“I understand those in power who buy guns.
I don't justify them, but I understand them.
Because we have to defend ourselves," said the 85-year-old.
He criticized "this vicious pattern of killing each other out of a desire for power, a desire for security, a desire for many things."
The Way of the Cross procession on Good Friday took place as a public event in front of believers for the first time in three years.
In the past two years, the pontiff had held the ceremony because of the corona pandemic in the largely empty St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.
Francis had already visited a prison on Thursday, where he symbolically washed the feet of twelve prisoners.
On Saturday the Easter celebrations continue with the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica.
They reach their traditional climax on Sunday, when Francis holds the Easter Mass and then bestows the blessing »Urbi et Orbi« (»To the city and the world«) in front of the faithful in St. Peter's Square.
mamk/AFP
